Conventionally, as a method that cleans the surface of a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate, a scrubbing cleaning method is used that rubs a substrate surface with a cleaning member having a brush, a sponge or the like while supplying deionized water to the substrate surface in order to clean the substrate surface. However, in this kind of scrubbing and cleaning, because the cleaning member is directly brought into contact with a substrate to clean the substrate, deformation and wear occurs in the cleaning member due to long time use, and as a result, the contact state of the cleaning member with the substrate changes and cleaning effectiveness is decreased.
Therefore, conventionally, a method of checking the contact state of a cleaning member has been proposed that uses a workpiece for checking to determine the contact state of the cleaning member from a contact trace of the cleaning member transferred to the workpiece for checking. For example, Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2006-7054, Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2010-74191 and Japanese Patent No. 4511591 describe such a technology. In such a manner, the contact state of the cleaning member is grasped and maintenance (for example, replacement of the cleaning member) is performed only when necessary.
However, in the conventional method, it is necessary to use a workpiece for checking to determine a replacement time of a cleaning member, which accordingly costs time and money by that amount, resulting in problems such as reduction of throughput and a cost increase.
It is desired to provide a substrate cleaning apparatus capable of appropriately determining a replacement time of a cleaning member with a high throughput and a decreased cost compared to the conventional substrate cleaning apparatus.
A substrate cleaning apparatus of one aspect includes a cleaning member that abuts on a substrate to scrub and clean the substrate, a holding means that holds the cleaning member, a pressing means that is provided in the holding means and generates force to press the cleaning member against the substrate, a position measuring means that is provided in the holding means and measures a position of the holding means and a replacement time determining means that determines a replacement time of the cleaning member based on the position of the holding means, in which the position of the holding means includes a cleaning position at which the cleaning member abuts on the substrate and a non-cleaning position where the cleaning member stays away from the substrate, and the replacement time determining means determines the replacement time of the cleaning member from change in the cleaning position while a plurality of substrates are continuously scrubbed and cleaned.
A substrate cleaning apparatus of another aspect includes a cleaning member that abuts on a substrate to scrub and clean the substrate, a holding means that holds the cleaning member, a pressing means that is provided in the holding means and generates force to press the cleaning member against the substrate, a position measuring means that is provided in the holding means and measures a position of the holding means and an abnormality detecting means that detects presence/absence of abnormality in the cleaning member based on the position of the holding means, in which the position of the holding means includes a cleaning position at which the cleaning member abuts on the substrate and a non-cleaning position where the cleaning member stays away from the substrate, and the abnormality detecting means detects presence/absence of abnormality in the cleaning member from change in the cleaning position while a single substrate is scrubbed and cleaned.
A replacement time determining method of another aspect is a replacement time determining method of a cleaning member in a substrate cleaning apparatus that scrubs and cleans a substrate, the replacement time determining method including a measuring step that measures a position of a holding means that holds the cleaning member and a determining step that determines a replacement time of the cleaning member based on the position of the holding means, in which the position of the holding means that holds the cleaning member includes a cleaning position at which the cleaning member abuts on the substrate and a non-cleaning position where the cleaning member stays away from the substrate, and the determining step determines the replacement time of the cleaning member from change in the cleaning position while a plurality of substrates are continuously scrubbed and cleaned.
An abnormality detecting method of yet another aspect is an abnormality detecting method in a cleaning member of a substrate cleaning apparatus that scrubs and cleans a substrate, the abnormality detecting method including a measuring step that measures a position of a holding means that holds the cleaning member and a detecting step that detects presence/absence of abnormality in the cleaning member based on the position of the holding means, in which the position of the holding means that holds the cleaning member includes a cleaning position at which the cleaning member abuts on the substrate and a non-cleaning position where the cleaning member stays away from the substrate, and the detecting step detects presence/absence of abnormality in the cleaning member from change in the cleaning position while a single substrate is scrubbed and cleaned.